Climate Change

It’s time to shift billions of people onto modern energy sources in ways that help women and the planet. That’s the mantra. But the U.N.’s latest development plan lacks any legally binding mechanism to create flows of finance.

The scoring system measures 72 countries on such things as rates of anemia, access to agricultural land and women in policymaking positions. The United States has the lowest rates of anemia, but factors such as its failure to ratify CEDAW pushed it to 14th place.

These businesswomen don’t have environmental backgrounds, but they know it’s time to tailor their business practices to extreme global weather patterns. The fashion designer always paid attention to the weather but now she watches it with an eye to fabric prices.

The documentary “Weathering Change,” released today, shows how climate change is disproportionately impacting women. In one Nepali woman’s village, the forest has been depleted and only a quarter of the inhabitants have enough to eat.

The Woman’s Land Army is a group of almost-forgotten U.S. women who helped feed the country during World War I. Today their self-sufficient example is helping to nourish the locally-grown food movement.

Bangladesh promises to be a star this September when the U.N. reviews development goals. But despite a strong start on girls’ education, many female-focused targets, including maternal mortality, are lagging far behind.

Population control policies have been linked to the subordination of women’s rights through coercive abortions and sterilizations. But in the age of C02 anxiety, a wary discourse is growing about the importance of reproductive rights to climate.

In Case You Missed It

It is being hailed as the most progressive state policy so far, going further than New Jersey, California and Rhode Island in various respects. But its showcase potential won’t be tested until the program gets going in 2018.